Germany players celebrate after the semifinal round of the men’s hockey game against Canada at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 23, 2018. Germany won 4-3. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

GANGNEUNG, South Korea—When the final buzzer sounded Friday night German forward Matthias Plachta was just as stunned as the rest of the world that Germany was in the Olympic Games hockey gold medal final.

“I was like ‘holy (expletive). I don’t know what’s going on right now,’” Plachta said.

Germany meets Russia on Sunday (today at 7:30 p.m.) at the Gangneung Hockey Centre as the most unlikely team to reach the last day of an Olympic tournament with a shot at gold since a bunch of college kids and an unflinching coach delivered a miracle in Lake Placid 38 years ago.

“We’re not the fastest team,” Plachta said. “We’re not the most skilled team, but we’re just a bunch of guys sticking together on the ice and off the ice too.”

Sound familiar?

While the decision by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and the owners not to let the league’s players compete in Pyeongchang ’18 robbed the Olympic tournament of its star power it has also given it a sense of anything can happen.

The story of these Games is Germany and the possibility of Miracle On Ice 2.0.

Germany stunned Sweden, picked by many as the Russian’s biggest threat, 3-2 in overtime in the quarterfinals. In Friday’s second semifinal, the Germans built a 4-1 lead against Canada after two periods and then held on for dear life the final 20 minutes of 4-3 win.

“We go to the final, we have no pressure,” German forward Dominik Kahun said. “Russia is the favorite, everybody knows it, and if you lose the game, we got silver medal. Who would think that we would make a medal here?”

Not the Russians who spent much of their post-game Friday talking about renewing their storied rivalry with Canada.

“It’s huge. It started with ’72,” Russia forward Ilya Kovalchuk said referring to the iconic 1972 Canada-Soviet Union Summit Series. “Our veterans created this rivalry. We respect their team, their country, so it is always a good fight.”

Said Russian forward Mikhail Grigorenko “I think it is always interesting for the hockey world to have those games.”

Instead Russia will face a band of overachievers molded by a coach whose NHL career was cut short by injury. Germany has medaled only twice at the Olympics, taking the bronze in 1932 and 1976. Germany was 11th in the 2010 Games in Vancouver and didn’t even qualify for the Sochi Olympics four years ago. The Germans have lost to Russia in the last two World Championships, 4-1 in the 2016 quarterfinal and 6-3 in last year’s first round.

Germany arrived in South Korea still a long shot to even make it out of the quarterfinals even in a tournament minus the Crosbys, Ovechkins and Kanes of the NHL.

“This is a pure heart we left out there on the ice,” defenseman Moritz Mueller said. “From day one, the coaches told us to play as a group and we have to be a little nuts to believe our own thoughts. But we made it and it’s unbelievable. It is like everything makes sense all of a sudden.”

How do you say “Who do play you for?’ in German?

The mastermind behind Germany’s unlikely Olympic run is former NHL left winger Marco Sturm, who played 15 seasons in the league, primarily with San Jose and Boston.

Sturm was an NHL all-star in 1999 and scored 20 goals seven times between 2001-2 and 2009-10. But after undergoing two knee surgeries in three years, Sturm was shipped by the Bruins to the Kings in December 2010 for future considerations. Sturm scored five goals in 17 games before he was waived in February 2011. He bounced from Washington to Vancouver to Florida before returning to the German League for a final season in 2012-13.

“I never won anything (in the NHL),” Sturm said. “I had tough injuries. It feels like this is all coming back now.”

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